How to beat a Picky Eater

May 23, 2018

Look out picky eaters, we’re coming for ya!

I want to start out by saying that I did everything exactly the same with my two kids. I did not breastfeed but I did pump for 3 months for both. After breast milk, they both had the same exact formula. When it was time for them to eat baby food, I made my own. I followed the pediatrician’s suggestions by first introducing the orange vegetables, then the green, and then the fruits last.

From day one, my daughter loved that disgusting oatmeal powder and my son refused it. When I made my homemade baby-food, it was like torture trying to get him to open his mouth! He would make faces before the food even came near him. I remember saying, “It didn’t even touch your lips yet!!!”

It got a little better when I was able to give him the mini sized pieces of food instead of the mashed food.

Fast forward to today. My son will not even touch meat let alone try a bite of it. My daughter loves meat, salmon and will pretty much try everything.

Here are a few of the little man’s staple foods. And as picky as he is, this list may surprise you because it has a few interesting foods you would not think kids would like. (I figured I would share if anyone needed any new ideas that might work for their picky eaters)

Plain Oatmeal

Cereal (any flavor Cheerios, Raisin Bran, Special K)

TOFU (yes he loves it…he even loves wakame which is slippery seaweed lol)

Most fruits (especially blueberries, bananas, grapes, apples)

Plain pasta or bread

Brown rice (we make him a dish called “dark rice” which is basically brown rice cooked with soy sauce and egg…great way to sneak an egg in)

Japanese noodles of any kind (udon, ramen, soba)

Corn

Canned beans (although he is kind of over those now)

So his list is not the typical picky eater list, but it is very hard to get him to vary from what he does like.

My number one piece of advice…

How to beat a Picky Eater

Keep putting stuff on their plate!!!! Keep trying to make them try new things. No matter how weird you might think a food is! Even when you are thinking to yourself, “there is not a shot in hell that my kid is going to touch that, let alone eat it!” Give them the chance to explore and try it on their own terms.

Yesterday, we were making a Japanese lunch. Spaghetti with spicy cod roe. It is a pasta dish mixed with tiny spicy fish eggs.

As I said before, my daughter eats almost everything. So I made her a dish and already had the plain pasta boiling separately for my son. Knowing that there was not a chance he would eat it.

He was waiting for his pasta and getting antsy in his high chair, so I figured let me just see…. I COULD NOT BELIEVE MY EYES!

He started eating the spicy spaghetti! I’m like, “Don’t even look at him, don’t make eye contact!” But I did. And his face!

He was literally LOVING IT. And I wasn’t even planning on giving him any because I ASSUMED he would refuse it! Not today, picky eater, not today.

Want to know the kicker? My daughter would not eat it and pushed her plate away! LOL

Of course this is not going to work every time. It might work 1 out of 100. But it is one more new food to the list.